Gap narrows slightly between pay of top CEOs and average workers—it was just 202 times as high in 2019

At the start of every year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives releases its report card on CEO pay.

It shows that the highest-paid 100 CEOs of Canadian public companies collected 202 times the compensation of the average worker in 2019.

That's down from a record 227 times the average worker's annual pay in 2018.

On average, the 100 highest-paid CEOs collected $10.8 million in 2019, down about $1 million from the previous year.

"That means by 11:17 a.m. on January 4, the first working day of the year, the average top paid CEO will have made as much money as the average Canadian worker will make all year—about an hour later than they did last year," the CCPA stated in a news release.

The "minimum wage" to enter the club in 2019 was $6.3 million.

The CCPA is only able to compile information from 2019 by this time. That's because many of the 2020 salaries won't be released until the sprint.

The left-leaning think tank hopes that its report spurs policymakers to eliminate income-tax deductions related to capital gains and stock options while introducing new marginal tax rates on "extreme incomes".

In B.C., the NDP government brought in a new marginal tax rate for those with taxable incomes above $220,000.

More than a third of the 100 highest-paid CEOs in 2019 headed companies that collected the federal wage subsidy in 2020.

The top income earner among CEOs of publicly traded Canadian companies in 2019 was José Cil.

He heads Restaurant Brands International Inc., which includes the Burger King and Tim Hortons brands.

His total compensation was $27,482,409, including $24,861,135 in share-based awards.

Three others also collected more than $20 million in Canadian currency: Magna International Inc. CEO Donald J. Walker, Barrick Gold Corp. president and CEO D. Mark Bristow, and Bausch Health Companies Inc. CEO Joseph C. Papa.

One of the CEOs on the list, Telus's Darren Entwistle, donated three months of his salary payments in 2020 to help health-care workers coping with the COVID-19 crisis. His family foundation, which he created with his wife Fiona, matched this 100 percent salary reduction.